published: Friday, September 21, 2012

Apathy weakens justice system

OURVOICE

Apathy weakens justice system

Local prosecutors recently dropped charges against a murder suspect. The man spent 32 months in jail waiting for trial for a deadly shooting in 2010 at an illegal nightclub.

Hundreds of patrons were reportedly at the club at the time of the shooting.

Detectives spent more than two years looking for witnesses. None could be found.

The suspect may leave prison later this year. Prosecutors could only make one charge stick: Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The name of the suspect and the details of this case aren't important. This story of aborted justice isn't about a failed judicial system. It isn't about lax investigators. And it isn't about an overloaded or lopsided legal system.

The system worked. It worked as it should have under the circumstances. And the circumstances of this case -- and perhaps many thousands more -- are indicative of another more tragic problem: The refusal or the fear of ordinary American citizens to involve themselves in their society.

This republic isn't about entitlement. It isn't about getting all you can from community and government and giving nothing back.

Our American system requires we become involved, we become engaged in its principles and we become participants in its development.

We cannot function as an abiding society if we as individuals are unwilling to take bold, sacrificial stances against injustice, against wrongdoing and against corruption.

Hiding behind the cover of inconvenience and the farcical thinking that it's someone else's business is an act of cowardice. Pretending the fearful realities and the sudden terrors that sometimes rudely intrude on everyday life don't exist is not living.

We must move through the short days of our lives looking to embrace the opportunities to make this place better and more humane.

We are under moral and civil authority. Ignoring these tenets of our human condition for fear's sake only diminishes us.